Added: 3 years ago
From: ErlichLw
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  • Dr Caligari in Leningrad moving around to abominable music that has no relevance to the film. Watch another version.

  • the soundtrack is horrid and a complete injustice to the story

  • is this music the original of the film??

  • Andrei Moskvin is principal cameraman on THE OVERCOAT. 15 years later, he helped create the expressionist lighting on the interiors of IVAN the TERRIBLE for Eisenstein. The odd dark spectacles of the Livonian Ambassador in IVAN find their precursor in the bizarre glasses for the eccentric go-between here. Apart from that, there's an interesting blend of natural and theatrical acting in this OVERCOAT. Music is fun too, even though it seems to run a life independent of the moving images.

  • Kozintsev & Trauberg expanded the story, so you won't really find this in Gogol. The guy with the odd spectacles works for a rich landowner, who's attempting to change a document in his favor in a legal action. The rake (who spews vodka in odd spectacles' face) is bribed to fix the forgery. But he can't get the original document from Akaky's diligent hands. The print is just okay, but it's good to see this eccentric film in any form. It also gives clues to S.M. Eisenstein's creative process:

  • Thanks for posting. I read about the silent "Шинель" years ago in Jay Leyda's KINO. The Trauberg Group developed a Russian variant of film expressionism. The insignificant government worker is of course our anti-hero Akaky. What follows comes from a loose description in Gogol: "You encounter all sorts on Nevsky Prospekt: even scoundrels!" This results in the rake (another bureaucrat) pursuing the call girl: "Although he's insignificant, he's still PERSISTENT!"

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  • Excellant.

  • I actually don't like the music at all--

    very characteristic of the 20s i guess...

  • thank you!

  • beautiful music.

    poushkin says the overcoat by gogol is one one the best short stories.

  • For the sake of terminological correctness, a narrative edited into the midst of a (silent) film is known as an *intertitle*.

    Anyhow, due to its cinematographic quality, the particular picture is quite comprehensible even without the textual component. Additionally, it would be somewhat difficult for me to provide adequate subtitles for an early 20th century Russian production, not being a native speaker myself.

  • English subtitles, please! LOL. A silent foreign film with subtitles but not in English. The irony!

  • Aw, I don't see why  you were thumbed down. Fair complaint.

    I guess the best thing to do would be to seek out the Gogol short story and read it. I think then you could pretty much follow what was going on.

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